Crime thriller set in AMSTERDAM
Talking to author Kate Mosse about The Burning Chambers
13th October 2018
Kate Mosse
is something of a literary phenomenon. After an early career in publishing, she turned her hand to writing her own books. A couple of non-fiction books were followed by two contemporary novels, she then found huge success with historical fiction through her Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinthe (best-selling UK book in 2006), Sepulchre (another #1 best-seller in the UK) and Citadel. Her latest book – The Burning Chambers – is the first in an ambitious quartet of novels that will transport the reader through 300 years of history, from the start of the French Wars of Religion in 1562, to Franschhoek in South Africa’s Western Cape in 1862, via Amsterdam and Virginia.
Playwright, essayist, journalist and broadcaster, passionate supporter of the arts and much else, founder of the original Orange Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate was awarded an OBE in 2013. Phew!
Kate talked recently about her latest book The Burning Chambers – set in 16th century Languedoc, France – at the Guildford Book Festival. TripFiction’s Andrew was privileged to chat with her afterwards.
TF: You live in Sussex and Carcassone, France, where some of your writing is set. How important is it for you to include a strong sense of place in your stories?
KM: Landscape is everything! The place speaks to me first and my stories flow from there. Stumbling across the Huguenot Museum in the South African Western Cape town of Franschhoek sowed the seed for my new book The Burning Chambers, the first in a quartet of historical novels spanning 300 years from 1562.
TF: Your latest book, The Burning Chambers, is is rooted in 16th century Languedoc. How did you go about your historical research in Carcassone and Toulouse?
KM: Well, I’ve been lucky to have a small house in Carcassone since 1989. It is in the shadow of the fortified city, but I had access to libraries, museums, old maps and much besides that allowed me to understand the area as it was in 1562, at the start of the French Wars of Religion.
TF: Some of your writing crosses timelines within a location – Labyrinthe, for example, takes place in early 13th century Carcassone and then transports the reader to the nearby French Pyrenees in 2005. How do you deal with that duality of time – and place – in your story-telling?
KM: I tend not to write in sequence, as it were. I’ll probably write 3/4 of the historical narrative, then 3/4 of the more contemporary storyline, before attacking the final 1/4 for both threads simultaneously, to pull the ending together.
TF: Which writers do you like reading, and how important is a strong sense of place in your own reading eyes?
KM: Yes, place is very important to me! I enjoy the novels of C J Sansom, S J Parris, and Ian Rankin, amongst others. And as I said earlier, landscape is everything in my own writing. The place speaks to me first and my stories flow from there.
TF: What’s next for you, Kate? And where?
KM: The Burning Chambers – set in Languedoc – is the first in a quartet of novels, spanning 300 years from the start of the French Wars of Religion in 1562. I’m working on the second, which will be called The City of Tears and will be set in Amsterdam. Then I’ll trace the story to Virginia – in the New World – and on to delightful Franschhoek in South Africa’s Western Cape, where some of the persecuted Huguenots settled.
TF: That sounds like some great literary wanderlust for TripFiction readers to look forward to, Kate. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. Happy writing and happy travelling.
Andrew for the TripFiction Team
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Unfortunately I only made it to that one but will try and do more next year. We should liaise. It would be fun to catch up. The three of them were very entertaining, talking about the art of creating suspense, choosing a good name as an author and other stuff about their writing. I thought Elly Griffiths made an excellent and relaxed interviewer. I haven’t read anything by Arlidge but I love S J Parris’ Giordano Bruno mysteries and Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series. Harriet
Sadly, I didn’t make this talk at the GBF but heard S J Parris with M J Arlidge and Elly Griffiths later that evening. They were also very interesting. If Andrew was in the audience, sorry I missed him!
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Hello Harriet. No, I wasn’t at the later session with S J Parris, M J Arlidge and Elly Griffiths. How was it? And which other GBF events did you get to this year?